We closed on the Oklahoma house, last night. We are very excited and happy about that. We'd wanted to wait until the end of the month to allow the current renter to finish out his lease (they are building their own home). A week or so ago, the seller started insisting that we move up the closing date and said the renter would be out by the 14th. That kind of jammed us up because we already had plane tickets to go later in the month but the seller said, in so many words - sue me if you want! Rather than sue, we shrugged and said, "Whatever." I assumed (turns out, wrongly) that the renter's house was completed and that was why they wanted to speed things up.
The seller was late on sending in his paperwork and the renter was late in moving out. As of last night, there was still furniture in the house and barn, and a pony in the pasture. Come to find out, the renter's house wasn't ready. The seller literally kicked the renter and the renter's family OUT with next to no warning! They even have small children. They have to find a temporary place to stay and even store their furniture while their house is being finished. They were so distressed that they were planning to just abandon some nice furniture, last night. They really didn't have a place to store it and had run out of time. Our agent went out to do the walk through and encouraged the man to go ahead and take his furniture because he'd regret it later, if he didn't. Our agent, a king among men, also helped load the truck... I can't imagine that stress for this family.
This morning, Husband called the renter. We wanted him to know we hadn't been the ones behind this ridiculous situation. The man sounded sick as a dog and we are sure he was already sick last night while trying to keep his family under a dry roof. At this point, we don't know if the pony is still in our pasture. Husband didn't ask and the man didn't offer. We will pretend that the pony is not there if it comes down to it. Same with any furniture left in the barn... (we'll deal with that stuff next week when we get there).
The good news is that the man and his family apparently took good care of the property and left it in good shape. He reports that it is a very nice neighborhood with good neighbors who took the trouble to come see him and wish him well as he left. We need to make sure that they know we didn't have any part of throwing that poor family out to the street.
photo - mailbox
4 comments:
any chance you can let them stay until their house is complete? good grief that would freak me out, either way! yikes.
Teri
They've already moved out which needed to be done in making the transaction. I felt HORRIBLE about this once I found out they'd been evicted. When we went to look for a forclosure (this wasn't a forclosure but they were on the way to file for one) I joked about finding a house and tossing out a widow. IT WAS A JOKE! Good heavens, the notion of putting a nice family out on the street is an awful feeling.
Congratulations on the closing. Sorry about the negative happenings surrounding it. It's amazing what some people will do...I'm glad there are kind, compassionate people in the world like you!
I feel like I need to bake you cookies or something! Congrats on the house, but so sorry it was stressful!
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